1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to camera display systems and, more particularly, to a camera display system for detecting a camera error and informing an operator of the error by displaying the error.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Cameras are generally made up of various mechanisms and circuits, such as a power source circuit, a shutter, a light measuring unit, a distance measuring unit, a strobe flash, and a zoom lens barrel. If an error occurs in any of these mechanisms, it becomes impossible to perform a satisfactory photographing operation. Accordingly, if a certain error occurs anywhere in a camera, it must be informed right away to an operator. To cope with this, it is a usual practice to adopt, as a most convenient means, a method for displaying errors on a liquid crystal display panel where a film frame number or a photographing mode is displayed. In such a case, an error is indicated by displaying a character or a row of characters. For example, "E", where a display pattern representative of a numeral is two digits or less, or "Err", where the display pattern is three digits or more, as shown in FIG. 4, is displayed. Further, there is another structure that causes all of the display patterns to flicker for informing an error. On a copier or the like, on the other hand, error codes such as "E0"-"E9" are flickered to inform an error.
However, with the display of only one character such as "E", the operator might fail to recognize an error by misunderstanding it as one of many mode representations of the camera. Likewise, if "Err" is displayed, an operator, if not aware of the meaning of error, may also misunderstand it as a mode display. Meanwhile, the provision of rarely-utilized display patterns exclusively for displaying errors results in an increase in design limitation.
Conventionally, for example, the residual capacity of a battery in a camera is displayed by a character or symbol disposed in the liquid crystal display panel. However, the mere display of an error carried out by adding a character or symbol for representing the same to such a panel will likely be overlooked by the operator. On the other hand, if all of the display patterns are flickered, the operator can readily become aware of the existence of an error but it will be difficult for the operator to determine the origin of the error. Nevertheless, when an error code is flickered, such as in a copier, the operator can recognize the error because of the flickering.
In a camera, most detected errors cannot be recognized by an operator, particularly the origin and content of the errors. Even if the origin and content of the errors are recognized by the operator, such errors are usually too difficult to be corrected by the operator as compared to, for example, an error in a copier, e.g., by removal of a jammed paper. Therefore, it becomes necessary for the operator to take the camera to a camera repair shop for correction of the detected error. Once in the repair shop, the exact origin and nature of the error must be readily identified in order to enable correction of the error.